Chapter 13: 12

Chapter 12 – Rest, Basement of the Hotel – ‘Living Pool’ (1)

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 3
Current Location: Basement, Billiards Room
Sage’s Advice: 3]

“Like, why can you not push your cue straight? I showed you how to do it. Hold onto the stick with your right hand, keep the tip next to your left, and just push it straight!”

“Hyung. I told you I’ve never done billiards before…”

“How could a college student not have played billiards before? From what you said, it’s not like you play games or anything either, right? Then what do you even do?”

It was frustrating. There were so many things to do in this world even apart from billiards and games, and yet Jinchul-hyung was telling me off for 20 minutes for being unable to do either of them. 

Fortunately, Sage’s Advice did not go off while we were travelling around the underground facilities. On the first day when we were in the elevator trying to go to the basement, it definitely said something like, ‘It’s dangerous to go down now!’ so why was it okay today?

What was the difference between the first day and today?

Looking back, there had been monsters at the front desk on the first day. Those monsters vanished by the time I realised it and… maybe they were in the basement? There were still a lot of things we didn’t know about the hotel.

Eunsol-noona’s prediction yesterday about the facilities was correct. They looked the same as guest rooms from outside, and from the outside, it looked like zoos and pools would definitely not fit in but they were all there upon opening the door.

It was too late for us to be surprised by something like this, so we all started playing where we wanted to. 

Eunsol-noona went to a bar to drink cocktails, Songee went to the zoo, Elena to the pool and Seungyub to the computer room. 

Everyone had a place to go and play in except for me. I was roaming around wondering what to do and was grabbed by Jinchul-hyung. There was pretty much everything in this hotel except for one thing – there were no people except for us and billiards was a game that was meant to be played by multiple people.

“But… the facilities are all good and stuff, but it’s only us so it’s a bit weird to play by ourselves.”

“That’s true. Not sure if Eunsol-noonim is enjoying herself alone at the cocktail bar. The zoo would probably have animals so that would be okay but, would Seungyub have anything to do at the computer room?”

“The game he plays doesn’t need friends next to him, I don’t think.”

“I know that. Who doesn’t know League of Legends? But, the internet’s probably not going to work in my opinion. The phone’s not working, and I doubt they will let us communicate with the outside world.”

“Hmm… that’s true. It might be more fun to do something together.”

Tap–

My cue wondrously sped through the air and smacked the edge of the table next to the ball. Seeing that, Jinchul-hyung dropped his cue and stood up.

“Ey, dude, let’s stop. What’s the point in doing billiards with someone who can’t even hit the ball? It’s not fun for both you and me. Let’s just go meet others.”

Thank goodness. 

So, where should we go then? There was one place that immediately rose to mind. Let’s be super honest here. I’m sure 95% of every male in the world would have had the same thought in mind. The pool!

I’d been longing to throw this damn cue away to go to the pool for a while! Anyone, or rather, any man would have been the same, including Jinchul-hyung! I was 100% sure.

“Hyung! How about we go to the pool? It’s not like we are going to learn how to play a game, and I’ve never had a cocktail before. And definitely not the zoo.”

“The pool…? I don’t have a swimsuit though.”

“Miss Elena went without swimsuits and hasn’t come out, so don’t you think the swimsuits would all be there as well? Even this billiards room has cues and everything right?”

“No, like, of course there are going to be cues in a billiards room… but swimsuits in a pool… they don’t even know how big our bodies are, do they?”

“Hyung, that’s a normal hotel. Everything we eat and drink has always been a perfect match to our tastes, so why would they not know our swimsuit sizes?”

It was strange. Like, how could he be so against going to the pool in a situation like this? I thought he had the same thing in mind as me judging from how much he smiled when talking to Miss Elena everyday. Regardless, I somehow persuaded him because there was nowhere else to go in the first place!

We walked out of the room and found Seungyub and Eunsol-noona on the other side of the corridor.

“Mhmm, you’re here as well.”

“Oh, was it also a little strange for you to stay by yourself, noona?”

“Yeah well, I wondered what I was doing, drinking cocktails by myself in a bar without a bartender and just came out. And he was outside already.”

“There’s no internet… the computer’s super good, but what in the world are you supposed to do with a computer and no internet…”

“We were thinking of going over to you, but you came out too. Was billiards not fun?” Eunsol-noona asked.

“Noonim. Don’t even mention it. This guy can’t even hit the ball with his cue. Ehew, I wonder what he’s been doing.”

“Ahahaha. So, where should we go?” 

Eunsol-noona replied to my question.

“Let me guess. You were going to go to the pool right!”

Flinch.

Honestly, she was right but having that mentioned in front of me was a little embarrassing. However, four of us were out already and to be frank, the zoo where Songee was at was a little ‘Meh’, right! There was no other choice but the pool! 

Seeing me flinch, noona giggled and turned around.

“Ah, so cute~. Let’s go to the pool then. There are a lot of facilities but not that many places to go to.”

We headed to the pool together.

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“By the way…” Seungyub said. “I was the first one out right? I was waiting and heard some strange sound. Did anyone hear that?”

“I didn’t hear anything. What kind of sound was it?”

“You know how it goes ‘Ding!’ whenever there is a new thing on the hotel display right. I thought I heard that from a distance, but maybe not.”

“Kain? Is there anything?”

“Hmm, there’s no change in the ‘advice’.”

“Then I think it should be okay. It always popped up whenever there was something going on right.”

During the monkey incident the first day, the main entrance, elevator and the cursed room, Sage’s Advice had been giving timely advice whenever it was dangerous. There was no way it would suddenly betray us. 

Seungyub awkwardly smiled saying it must have been a mistake, and we all headed to the pool.

*

/Today’s Surprise Event! The ‘Living Pool’ has been opened!/

*

I immediately realised why Jinchul-hyung, who had been telling me off the whole morning regarding billiards, was so reluctant to go to the pool. Even though he should be confident about his body and even though that ‘Elena’ was swimming!

This man was unbelievably bad at swimming.

“Huuk, huuk, huuk.

“Cough! Apupuh! Ptui, uaak!”

A variety of noises were filling up the pool.

“I’m pretty sure I heard someone say yesterday that he could do some basic swimming,” said Eunsol-noona.

“Huk, huk, huk… I did, definitely learn it when I was young though.”

“You mean when you were swimming in your mother’s womb?”

“Haha, huu. That was a good joke.”

It didn’t sound like a joke though. To me, it looked like Eunsol-noona was 100% serious about her comment and I thought the same thing. 

Was this… even possible? Just take a deep breath and a human body would naturally float above water. Shouldn’t it be possible to proceed a little bit no matter how bad you are at swimming? He was thunderously swinging his legs around as powerfully as possible but for some reason, he couldn’t stretch them back.

I think he would float just by taking a deep breath, and yet he was obviously twisting his body to slowly sink down. His astonishing skills even overshadowed Elena’s remarkable swimming skills (I’m definitely talking about her swimming skills!) which reminded one of a dolphin, as we all leaned on the wall watching Jinchul-hyung.

A bulky man reaching 190 cm thrashing around while slowly falling deeper underwater was really a sight to behold. I would have paid money even if I had to!

Since I had been nagged the whole morning for being unable to hit the ball with my cue, this was even more amusing to watch. We were all giggling together when Songee came back.

“Ah! You were all here. I went to the billiards room and the bar but there was no-one there so I was wondering where everyone was.”

“Songee, you should join as well! If you go into the room with a clothing sign in that second room, your swimsuit will pop up. If you don’t see it, you can turn around once and it will be there.”

“We really are at a strange place, aren’t we. Considering how nonchalantly you said that.”

They were indeed nonchalantly talking about some extremely bizarre things.

“How was the zoo? Were there a lot of animals? Like elephants?” I asked.

“Ah, Kain-oppa. The zoo… hmm. I think we should go there together one day. It’s a bit of a strange zoo; not like the one we are thinking of.”

Jinchul-hyung, who was out of the water by the time I realised it, asked back.

“A strange zoo? There is nothing that is normal in this hotel though. This pool is already super strange. How strange is it for you to say that? Don’t tell me they have locked humans just because they are also animals?”

“That’s not it, but they are all animals I’ve never seen before. Not like deers, foxes or anything… It’s my first time seeing them.”

“Maybe you just don’t know them, Songee? I saw this famous documentary film before about lives on Earth, and there were some seriously intriguing animals.”

“That might be the case for some. But, although I didn’t see much because of how big the zoo was, I saw more than 10 species but I had no idea what any of them were.”

“Then… rather than going together, I think we should all stay away from it instead…”

“Maybe?”

A strange zoo – I etched it into my memories. I had a feeling that the botanical garden would probably be the same. 

A zoo filled with animals never seen before. Did they gather animals which normal people would not know of? It would be great if that was the case but…

What if it was a normal animal in the standards of this hotel? If they were animals that existed somewhere–

Right as an ominous trail of thought appeared in my head,

Something unexpected occurred.

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